


The Ghost Who Lived

by Larnise



Series: Never Tickle A Sleeping Dragon [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Female Harry Potter, Harlow is the Leader and a Tank, Her name is Harlow, Hermione is straight DPS, Luna has perfected the art of the Stealth ArcherTM, Multi, Pansy is an information gatherer, She works closely with Argo, Susan is also a Tank
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:13:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21743542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Larnise/pseuds/Larnise
Summary: The first time Kirito saw Ghost, she was just a girl glaring defiantly at the empty sky where Kayaba's avatar had been moments before. She turned to leave, four other girls following her, and as they both entered alleys on the same side of the plaza, she half-turned and he caught sight of acid green eyes, and he felt for a moment as though they would simply burn right through him, leaving nothing but a melted puddle behind. Then she vanished from sight, and he remembered the glare he'd first seen.No, he thought, she won't be killing me. She'll be killing Kayaba.~~~Kayaba Akihiko has tickled the sleeping dragon, and he won't like what awakes.
Relationships: Others to be decided, Susan Bones/Pansy Parkinson, The canon SAO ships
Series: Never Tickle A Sleeping Dragon [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1567171
Comments: 39
Kudos: 259





	1. In Which Hogwarts Sends Off Her Graduates

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I hit writer's block in one story, I flop over to another. So here, I may as well post what I'm flopping over _to _.__

“The war is over! We won! Peace at last!” People kept saying that, but as Harlow looked over her friends ( ~~her army~~ ) ( _her kids_ ), she couldn't help but wonder if that was true. Because here she was, sitting in the Room of Requirement with everyone else for whom it was the only home they truly had left, the only place they felt safe, and she was seeing -

Luna Lovegood. Luna, who no longer wore jewelry made of vegetables, no longer wore jewelry _at all_ , sometimes even refused to wear anything except clothes the same gray as the castle walls. Luna, who knew now why she was the only one who ever saw the wrackspurts and nargles, who understood why blibbering humdingers and crumple-horned snorkacks hid away. Luna, who when asked, would tell you that she wished she could have been ~~as safe~~ as invisible as them. (Harlow couldn't help but resent that Luna was forced to learn the value of hiding.)

Susan Bones. Susan, who was the last living member of her family, whose house had burned along with her aunt. Susan, who had screamed as she released her magic, as it dug deep below the Death Eaters and tore the ground apart underneath them, then sealed it back over, trapping her aunt's killers in the cave that would become their tomb. Susan, who was being called ~~a monster~~ a prodigy, now, for the sheer strength of the wandless, wordless magic she'd wrought. (Harlow couldn't help but resent that Susan only learned those skills through the sheer force of grief.)

Pansy Parkinson. Pansy, who Susan brought in to the DA what felt like an eternity ago, now. Pansy, who had told everyone who questioned the presence of a Slytherin that her only ambition was to out live “ _those Death Munching fuckers”_ and that all of her cunning was going toward that goal. Pansy, who had told them everything the student Death Eaters talked about when they thought only Dark aligned were there, who had sent a frantic Patronus message to Susan, the misty cockroach (“ _unkillable, like me_ ”) practically screaming “ _I've been found out!”_ Pansy, who hadn't been seen until the next DA meeting, who showed up with a new scar on the back of her hand, the words reading out _I shall not betray my kin_. Pansy, who had seen the stares and boldly proclaimed “ _I have not betrayed_ ~~ _you_~~ _my kin. I have protected_ ~~ _you_~~ _my kin._ ” (Harlow couldn't help but resent that Pansy ever learned that family ties could be so brittle.)

Hermione Granger. Hermione, who had started casting bluebell flames when she was eleven, and had mastered control over fiendfyre by the time she turned sixteen. Hermione, who was called the “brightest witch of her age,” who laughed at the irony of her mind and her magic being so intertwined. Bright, ~~burning~~ ~~fire~~ ~~ashes~~ ~~flames~~ ~~heat~~ , _bright_. Hermione, who knew with a certainty that couldn't be broken, that sometimes you had to burn the forest to give the saplings room to grow. (Harlow couldn't help but resent that Hermione had had to learn to make room for them where the “ _adults_ ” would not.)

And she knew, that when they looked at her, they saw -

Harlow Potter. Harlow, who had never faltered, who had fought to protect everyone she loved from the day she ~~was taken away from the Dursleys' cupboard~~ entered Hogwarts. Harlow, who had been screaming the truth since before anyone cared to listen. Harlow, who had walked into the Forbidden Forest and come out ~~unscathed~~ ~~dead~~ ~~undead~~ alive. Harlow, who had vanquished the Dark Lord and saved them all, at the cost of – something. (Harlow couldn't help but resent that she had been raised for _that_ , but she would make sure nobody ever learned exactly what she'd gone through.)

And she knew, they all knew, that somewhere below them, in the Great Hall, a graduation ceremony was happening. That there were people there who were wondering where they were (and a few who knew, but wouldn't ever tell). That a representative from the Ministry would be giving a grand speech about all the things the graduates had learned over the last seven years. (Harlow couldn't help but resent that none of their real lessons would be included in it.)

Harlow looked at her friends ( ~~her army~~ ) ( _her kids_ ), and she knew that none of them had anywhere to go but here. And they looked at her, and they knew that she had nowhere to go, either. And the Room of Requirement looked at all within its walls, and as always, it provided. (Harlow couldn't help but resent that they'd learned to trust a room more than they'd ever trusted their parents, or teachers, or aurors or government figures or _or_ _ **or**_ -)

And as the Room of Requirement reached into the fabric of the multiverse and pulled out a new home for the five ~~girls~~ ~~women~~ _soldiers_ it held, they looked at the strange helmets, _Nerve Gear_ written on the sides, with cords that trailed off and dissipated into nothingness. They looked at each other, and they knew they would not be coming back.

There was nowhere else for them to go. So they went, together, to another world. And as they vanished, the helmets falling to the floor and disappearing as the Room closed with no one left inside, the very foundations of the castle shook. In the Great Hall, the Ministry representative's grand speech was interrupted by a strange wailing sound, as the castle herself mourned for her vanished children.

(And Hogwarts couldn't help but resent that they had learned they had nothing in this world worth staying for.)


	2. In Which First Impressions Are Formed

The first time Silica saw Beast, she was just a girl staring at a giant wasp, starter bow drawn and carefully aimed. Only, instead of shooting, the girl sighed and lowered her bow, tucking the arrow back into her quiver. Then, the girl turned and caught sight of her, and froze, eyes wide.

_ She looks like a deer in the headlights, _ Silica thought, and that was only reinforced by the frantic movements the girl made as she scrambled away, out of sight around a hill.

~~~

The first time Agil saw Quake, she was just a girl scowling at a rock formation just outside the gates to the Town of Beginnings. She stomped one foot, hard, on the ground, and the rocks shook a bit. Not much, but enough for him to notice. Then, she grinned and leaped forward, thrusting with the edge of her starter shield into a small gap in the formation. As it got stuck inside, she twisted her arm, and the shield acted as a lever, bringing the entire formation crumbling down.

_ How did she do that?  _ Agil thought, incredulous, as the falling rocks threw up clouds of dust. By the time it cleared, she was nowhere to be seen.

~~~

The first time Argo saw Grapevine, she was just a girl in the shadows on the edge of the marketplace, watching the comings and goings of everyone else who’d logged in for the grand opening. Something about the girl’s stance caught her eye, so she stopped to try and figure it out. Arms crossed, leaning one shoulder against a building, one foot tucked behind the other - it seemed perfectly casual at first glance, but she couldn’t help but think there was something off about it.

_ What is with this girl?  _ Argo wondered. Of course, then the girl’s watchful gaze came to rest on her. One delicate eyebrow rose, her weight shifted almost imperceptibly, and before she could react, the girl was gone.

~~~

The first time Asuna saw Fiend, she was just a girl in the field outside the Town of Beginnings, frowning at a boar as she held the starter sword in one hand, then turning to look at the sky. She seemed to be deep in thought. Then, she swung the sword at an angle upwards from her hip. The blade seemed to flash, and the boar visibly startled, closing its eyes and backing up.

_ The sun _ , Asuna realized,  _ she’s bouncing the sunlight off her sword to blind her enemy.  _ She hadn’t realized that would be something the game mechanics would allow. She watched, fascinated, as the girl charged at the now blind boar, sliding past it and dragging her sword along its flank, before continuing on over a hill and out of sight, ignoring the scattered pixels she’d left in her wake.

~~~

The first time Kirito saw Ghost, she was just a girl glaring defiantly at the empty sky where Kayaba's avatar had been moments before. She turned to leave, four other girls following her, and as they both entered alleys on the same side of the plaza, she half-turned and he caught sight of acid green eyes, and he felt for a moment as though they would simply burn right through him, leaving nothing but a melted puddle behind. Then she vanished from sight, and he remembered the glare he'd first seen.

_ No _ , Kirito thought,  _ she won't be killing me. She'll be killing Kayaba. _


	3. In Which An Unknown Ally Gifts The Soldiers A Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short one again, and honestly, all the chapters in this work are probably going to be pretty damn short.

To say the girls were surprised when an NPC courier approached them in Tolbana’s main square with a letter - no sender’s name or return address - would be an understatement. He handed it to Ghost, then ran off down a side street without waiting for any kind of reaction. Grapevine frowned and grabbed the letter, scanning it for traps with both her Searching skill and her skills from the war.

After several moments, she handed it back with a simple, “It’s safe.” Ghost took it and sat down on the edge of the fountain to open it. Grapevine and Beast sat next to her, peering over her shoulders, while Quake and Fiend stood a short distance away, keeping an eye out for anyone else approaching.

When it was finally open though, none of them quite knew how to react. At the top of the page were three, simple words, in smooth cursive:  **Pureblood Ancestors Lie.** Underneath that, was the painfully familiar symbol of the Deathly Hallows. The three on the fountain were silent for long enough that the other two came over to investigate.

“Shit, I was right!” Fiend hissed when she saw it. The others turned to her.

“What do you… do you mean?” Beast asked her, frowning and tilting her head to the side. Fiend hesitated, before motioning to the nearest inn. The rest understood: this was a conversation meant to be had behind closed doors.

Once they’d rented a room and settled down, Hermione started talking.

“I had a theory, towards the end of the war. The radio show the twins and Lee did is what sparked it, and thinking back on my childhood only made me surer. This letter, whoever it’s from, is confirmation. Muggle technology isn’t affected by magic.” Here, Susan interrupted.

“Wait, what? But what about the fact that muggle tech didn’t work at Hogwarts?” she asked. Hermione shook her head.

“I think it  _ did _ . Or would have, if anybody brought it. But the muggleborns and muggle-raised half-bloods were told right off the bat not to bother, and the purebloods and pureblood-raised half-bloods never had any, to begin with. Think about it. Har, when you did accidental magic as a kid, did it ever affect anything in your relatives’ house?” Harlow had to think about it for a moment.

“No… no, I don’t think so.” She frowned, staring down at the symbol of the Hallows. Hermione jumped to her feet again.

“See? Here’s what I think happened - at some point, when muggles started developing more advanced technology, the pureblood parents realized that their kids might become interested in muggles. Maybe one or two kids even wrote home asking to go to their new muggleborn friends’ houses during vacations.” Pansy’s eyes widened.

“No traditionalist pureblood parent would want their kid in a muggle house,” she realized.

“Exactly!” Hermione said, grinning as she sat back down.

“So, they… they needed an excuse,” Luna added, leaning forward in her own chair, “something their kids would… would believe.”

“And ‘your accidental magic might destroy every muggle item in that house’ would be the perfect one,” Susan groaned, “no kid would want to risk that. Actually, maybe not even just accidental magic. I mean, the laws about underage magic were enacted in what, the late 1800s?”

“1875, to be exact. The ‘Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery’ law,” Pansy responded.

“And the Industrial Revolution started in the early 1700s,” Hermione finished, “so it’s entirely possible that these lies started before underage magic was made illegal, anyways.”

“Oh…” Luna breathed, eyes wide and hands flying to cover her mouth. “Oh, no.” Hermione looked over.

“What is it?” she asked. Luna shook her head in response, forcing her hands back down to her sides.

“Daddy and I realized something… something a while back, and it - the timeline - oh, gods.” She shook her head again, struggling to continue. “The rumors about… about muggleborns being less… being less powerful than purebloods started… started in the… the mid-1700s.” Hermione hissed in a breath.

“If muggleborn kids thought  _ their  _ magic would break the technology around them, they wouldn’t have practiced at home,” she said, screwing her eyes shut.

“And just like that, they’re behind their classmates in  _ everything _ ,” Pansy added, looking like she was about to throw up.

“Throw in the law, later, and the Trace that came with it…” Susan trailed off, hanging her head.

“And muggleborn kids  _ can’t  _ practice at home, even if they want to, while pureblood houses make it impossible to tell if it’s the kids or the parents,” Pansy said.

“But by that point, nobody remembers anymore about how muggleborns not practicing  _ started _ . It’s written off as them being lazy or weak, and the law is written off as an excuse for them.” Hermione’s voice was getting more heated, now.

“Guys,” Harlow whispered, sounding strangled. The others looked at her, realizing she hadn’t spoken in several minutes. She finally looked up from the letter. “How did this get here? We’re in a whole different universe. Who here could have known any of this? And why - why use this symbol?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This whole thing is actually a headcanon of mine!


	4. In Which The Soldiers March Off To War

The girls put the question of who sent the letter out of their minds and moved on. They’d learned long ago that it was more important to focus on the here and now than on possibilities. If the sender wanted to be revealed, it would happen. In the meantime, they had a theory to test.

They decided to start small. They waited for nightfall, and in the privacy of their inn room -

“Lumos,” Hermione muttered. Nothing happened. She sighed, shoulders slumping.

“Well, we don’t have our wands, so…” Susan trailed off, frowning at the wall.

“No, but… but we do have… we do have weapons,” Luna pointed out, reaching over and tapping Hermione’s sword.

“That’s a thought. I mean, they’re not made of the proper materials, but maybe since we’re in a video game it works differently,” Pansy speculated, tapping her fingers on her chin.

“It’s worth a try,” Harlow confirmed, arming herself with her spear as Hermione pulled her sword from its sheath.

“Lumos,” Hermione tried again, and this time, the tip of her sword lit up. The girls all grinned.

“Expelliarmus!” Harlow suddenly shouted, jabbing her spear towards Hermione. The sword flew out of her grip and into Harlow’s free hand. Susan snorted at Hermione’s offended  _ look _ , and it set off a chain reaction of giggles that continued well into the night.

~~~

The next morning, they all had a message in their inbox. The boss room had been found, and there was going to be a meeting later in the morning about a battle plan.

When they arrived at the amphitheater, the first thing they noticed was the sheer number of people that they’d helped at one point or another. At least three-quarters of the crowd was composed of familiar faces.

“Hey, Grapevine!” one voice called out. The girls turned, and Grapevine grinned.

“Hey, Argo. Any juicy tidbits lately?” she asked. Argo shook her head.

“Aside from the obvious,” here, she gestured to the crowd, “I don’t think there’s anything you lot would be particularly interested in. Anything new from you?”

“No, just surprised at how many people here I recognize. Oh, Argo, this is the rest of my team. My girlfriend, Quake, then there’s Beast, Fiend, and our leader, Ghost.” Each girl nodded when she was introduced, and Quake held her hand out.

“It’s nice to meet you. Grapevine’s been telling me a bit about your work. It’s good that she’s found someone trustworthy outside of just us,” she said as Argo shook it.

“Huh. So, were you two dating before the game?” Argo asked, winking. Ghost snorted.

“They were, but they haven’t been together for nearly as long as they should have been,” she commented, ignoring the indignant glares it earned her from the couple in question.

“Oh? Do tell,” Argo purred, grinning at Grapevine.

“We’ve all known… all known each other for… for seven years,” Beast started, looking at Fiend.

“And they spent four of those years visibly pining for each other,” the other girl finished. Quake shook her head.

“Okay, I’ll admit, in hindsight we were both dumb. But was that broom cupboard really necessary?” she asked.

“Yes,” the other three said in unison.

“Just be glad we managed to find one the toad and her lackeys didn’t know about,” Ghost added, “because with the sounds you two were making-” Quake slapped a hand over her mouth before she could continue.

“We best find somewhere to sit, it was nice meeting you Argo, we probably won’t see you after the meeting because we’ll have to hurry out to grind,” she babbled, pushing Ghost along with one hand on her shoulder and the other still covering her mouth.

“Didn’t we do enough grinding in the broom cupboard?” Grapevine asked, with a shit-eating grin. Quake squeaked and turned bright red.

~~~

In the end, the meeting was useless to the five, aside from providing some information about the boss from the beta test. With their varied builds, they ended up being given free rein of the battlefield, to go wherever they felt they were needed at any given moment.

~~~

As the assault team entered the boss room, Grapevine instantly started analyzing every aspect of it. She spoke rapid-fire into the voice chat the five had set up with each other.

“Flat floor, flat walls, plenty of lighting. Beastie, you best stay back a bit, nowhere for you to hide. Ghost, Quake, the other tanks have the center covered, best stick to the sides.” Quake veered right as Ghost veered left. “Fiend, Kirito and Asuna are alone, give them some back up.” Fiend moved toward the leftover duo to help them with the kobolds that would be appearing. Beast and Grapevine stayed near the back of the field.

As the assault team got far enough into the room, Illfang the Kobold Lord appeared, and the battle was on. For the next few minutes, the girls kept a running commentary with each other.

“Ghost, on your six,” Quake said. Ghost spun and stabbed the kobold that had been sneaking up behind her.

“Beastie, think you can hit its eye?” Fiend asked. Beast aimed high and let loose an arrow - which hit Illfang in the nose.

“She said eye!” Grapevine teased. Beast blew a raspberry at her.

“I’m going to try something. Tarantallegra!” Ghost cast, thrusting her spear at Illfang’s legs. He started dancing, lost his balance, and fell on his back. The DPS players descended upon him in a swarm of attacks.

As he got back to his feet, they fell back, and the tanks drew his aggro, but his health bar had reached the point of the weapon switch. He stepped back, dropped his bone axe and shield, and reached behind him.

“Everyone fall back! I’ll handle this!” Diavel ordered. He charged forward, sword raised with the glow of a skill on the tip - and Kirito and Grapevine shouted out at the same time.

“It’s no good!”

“That’s not a talwar!”

Nobody outside of the Hogwarts graduates quite caught what happened next. As far as any of them knew, there were two sharp  _ cracks _ that echoed through the room, and suddenly Diavel was laying on his back behind Fiend and Ghost, Fiend’s hand still outstretched from shoving him. Ghost slammed the butt of her spear into the ground between the three of them and the Kobold Lord.

“Protego!” she screamed. A shimmering field of light sprang into existence, stretched across the room like a net, from her spear to the walls. Illfang swung his nodachi down towards her unflinching form, but it bounced off the light, knocking him off balance.

Kirito sprang forward into the opening it left, landing the final blow. A silence fell in the immediate aftermath, everyone taking a moment to process what had just happened.

Diavel shakily started to stand up, and Ghost turned to help him to his feet. Once he was standing, he bowed to both and Fiend.

“Thank you both. You saved my life,” he said. “Is there any way I can repay you?” Fiend shook her head.

“We only did what we had to do,” she, replied, “no repayment necessary.”

“Yeah, because you cheated!” Kibaou suddenly shouted. The crowd parted to reveal him pointing accusingly at them. “What was that, anyways? Some kind of hack?” Ghost scowled at him, but before she could respond, there were three more  _ cracks _ , and Grapevine, Beast, and Quake joined the other two.

“Perhaps if this were a game,” Grapevine snapped, spine straight and gaze steady - every inch the pureblood lady she’d been raised to be - “then we might be accused of cheating. But this is most certainly not a game. It ceased to be one the moment Kayaba changed the rules.”

“When you are at war,” Fiend added, sparks beginning to fly up from her hands, “You use every tool at your disposal. That is a lesson we learned the hard way.”

“And trust me when I say this, Mr. Kibaou - We. Are. At. War.” Ghost punctuated her statement by raising her stabbing her spear toward Kibaou, casting her patronus. The misty thestral sprang forward, spreading its wings and rearing up onto its hind legs. In quick succession, Fiend’s otter hopped down next to it - Quake’s elephant stood, head lowered and trunk extended, Grapevine’s cockroach perched on the tip - and Beast’s magpie swooped down, hovering between the otter and the thestral.

As the patronuses dissipated, the girls gave one last look around the room, before heading up the stairs to the second floor without another word.


	5. In Which The Legacy of Hogwarts Holds True

“So, I think you should start a guild.” Grapevine startled and looked at Argo with wide eyes. Outwardly, the younger girl kept her cool, but inwardly - she was  _ freaking out.  _ A reaction! An actual, honest-to-God, caught-off-guard  _ reaction _ !

“What makes you say that?” Grapevine asked. Argo shrugged.

“Well, you lot are always going around helping everyone learn everything. Why not make it official?” she explained. The older girl hesitated, deep in thought. After several long moments, she nodded.

“I’ll talk to Ghost about it.”

~~~

Pansy pitched the idea in the privacy of their inn room. She and the other three were in favor of it, unanimously, but the decision was ultimately up to Harlow, and they all knew it.

They also knew what her decision would be long before she said anything. So, with a smile, she simply asked a question.

“How do we do it?”

~~~

They had two dozen applicants within the first five minutes of their new guild being officially listed. They set up shop in the tavern room of an inn in Central Tolbana, and started interviewing the applicants to see where the best fit would be.

~~~

“What would you say is your priority in life, aside from beating the game and going home?” Ghost asked.

~~~

“Getting the best education I possibly can.”

“Why?”

“I want to learn about everything.” With a smile, Ghost sent Silica to Beast’s Eagles.

~~~

“I suppose it would be to expand my bar, increase my income.”

“Why?”

“So I can better support my wife and any children we have.” With a smile, Ghost sent Agil to Quake’s Badgers.

~~~

“Hmm… I’d have to say getting an education at the best school in Japan.”

“Why?”

“Well, you can’t get very far in life without information, can you?” With a smile, Ghost sent Argo to Grapevine’s Snakes.

~~~

“I’m going to start a career, make a name for myself.”

“Why?”

“To prove that I can, without help from my parents or their name, or a husband that I don’t want.” With a smile, Ghost sent Asuna to Fiend’s Lions.

~~~

“I… I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

“Before this, I didn’t really have a purpose. Now, obviously, I want to beat the game and free everyone, but aside from that…” And with a smile, Ghost set Kirito by her side.

~~~

And thus, the Dragon Alliance was born, affectionately called the DA 2.0 by the women who’d founded it.


	6. In Which The Past Catches Up To Us All, Sooner Or Later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may or may not have forgotten that there's a canon guild called the Divine Dragon's Alliance until I was researching the episodes covered in this chapter. Whoops. We're just going to pretend that guild *doesn't* exist, okay?

The Dragon Alliance gained notoriety quickly. Within a few days, they went from ten members to one hundred, each one personally interviewed and sorted by ~~the Girl Who Lived~~ the General. After that, recruitment finally slowed down enough for her to go back into the field, Kirito by her side as her second in command.

A scouting team of Snakes found a castle on the 22nd floor that had been part of a quest in the beta. The quest must have been scrapped before the official release, but the landscaping associated with it was left, except for opening a corridor through the cliffs.

The Alliance bought the castle, and the log cabin associated with it. Neither was ever officially named, but sometimes the founding members could be caught calling them names that made no sense.

(“Hogwarts… Hogwarts will always be home, won’t she?” Luna asked, a smile on her face that indicated she knew the answer.)

The rest of the Alliance politely pretended not to notice.

~~~

A unit of Lions and Badgers saved a smaller guild from a horde too big for the Moonlit Black Cats to handle by themselves, then recruited a unit of Snakes and Eagles to help their new friends collect the funds to buy a home.

In return, the small guild spread their praises to everyone else they met.

Following the rumors of a guild of selfless defenders, a lone player who’d lost everything went to them with a request: catch my friends’ killers.

If Ghost looked into his grey eyes and black hair and saw a different face, she would never tell anyone. She assigned Kirito to the job, but… When Rosalia and her guild were safely imprisoned, paying the price for their crimes, the lone player thanked the Black Swordsman profusely.

Nobody ever told him that it had been the Dragon herself who served justice for ~~the Marauders~~ the Silver Flags.

~~~

When Yolko and Caynz came to the DA’s castle, mentioning that a former guild leader had pointed them this way, Ghost nodded and nearly said Padfoot’s name.

She caught herself, but those who knew her, who had known her godfather, noticed.

Beast came up with the plan. (“Leave it to a Ravenclaw,” Pansy commented under her breath.)

Fiend left the castle with the former Golden Apple members, pretending to help them investigate. When they “died,” they took corridor crystals to ~~the Room of Requirement~~ the log cabin, and Fiend went there on foot to meet them.

Meanwhile, Grapevine scouted Griselda’s gravesite, tracking the times Grimlock visited it, finding spots potential enemies could hide and spring an ambush.

Quake befriended Schmitt, convinced him to visit his old friend’s grave. (“Only a Hufflepuff could pull  _ those  _ heartstrings,” Hermione rolled her eyes.)

Schmitt arrived fifteen minutes before Grimlock. They eliminated him as a possibility just in time for the player killers to arrive.

(“Laughing Coffin? Are you serious? As if eating death wasn’t enough, now we have coffins that laugh?” Susan griped.)

Against five veterans, the gamers didn’t stand a chance. As Grimlock and his fellow murderers were taken to the nearest portal in shackles, Ghost noticed a shadow standing on the hill.

She gave Griselda a nod, drawing her friends’ ( ~~her army’s~~ ) ( _ her kids’ _ ) attention to the shade.

(“I guess ghosts do recognize each other,” Harlow whispered to herself.)

**Author's Note:**

> I have a job now, but my RedBubble DeviantArt are still open if you feel like supporting an artist!  
> Ell-Kingfisher.redbubble.com  
> deviantart.com/ellannrakingfisher  
> And my Discord server is still open if you feel like joining! discord.gg/rTSccSJ


End file.
